Pre-Christmas Update

It has been a while since we've had a chance to update - I guess we've been pretty busy between work, the holidays, and planning for our big Swiss adventure. So here's what we've had going on.

Pikkujoulut

The first weekend of December some friends from Finland invited us over for Pikkujoulut, or "Little Christmas." I guess this is the traditional Finnish Christmas party, where we enjoyed some traditional food and drink that was prepared by our hosts, which was awesome. There was a white elephant gift exchange (or apparently if you're from Memphis, "Dirty Santa"). Jenna got some cookies and I got an ornament. There was a quiz over the history and traditions of Finland (the world record for the sauna world championship - sit in a 230 degree sauna until you can't stand it - is just over 17 minutes). There was even an appearance from Santa Claus. It was a very fun party and helped us get the Christmas season started.

Stomp

Last weekend we had nothing planned, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to hit the London theatres for the first time. There is a tkts booth (1/2 price retailer, same as in NYC), so we went there. It opens at 10:00, so we needed to leave around 9:00. Turns out that is a little too early for us on a Saturday, so we got there just after lunch, so the selection was less than ideal. We'd been talking about seeing Stomp for several years, but never really got around to seeing it, so we figured this would be a good opportunity, since it was pretty cheap.

In between getting the tickets and the show, we went to Harrod's and braved the Christmas crowd. We were looking for a decent snow globe, and their Christmas section ended up being at least 50% off, so we also ended up with some ornaments and a Christmas puzzle.

Stomp was pretty good. Our seats were excellent, and the show was pretty impressive. After about an hour, I guess I did get a little bored. I guess there's only so many things that you can bang on before it starts getting repetitive. We're really glad we went, but it didn't compare to Blue Man Group that we saw this summer.

Cambridge

Like when we went to Oxford, we bummed off our KC friends that have a car and drove up to Cambridge. The weather was significantly better than Oxford - 50 degrees and off-and-on sunny. Again, we took a guided walking tour of the campus/city. Our tour guide was incredibly disappointing. She was some kind of scientist before retiring, so she concentrated her tour on all of the scientific breakthroughs that happened there. She showed us all of the buildings where they discovered things like blood flow and DNA, and talked about a lot of scientists that nobody has ever heard of. She did mention that the school is involved in other things like philosophy and history, but that was mostly a side note.

The buildings and the campus were amazing. It is a little weird to walk into a church and see the section that is dedicated to Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn and to think that he stood in the same spot several hundred years ago.

All in all, Cambridge was very cool, but I think we preferred Oxford. If anyone reading this has some affinity to one or the other, our bias is probably based mostly on the tour guides, so don't get too upset. That, and the T-shirts in the gift shops weren't all that nice.

Misc

A few random items from the weeks:

-We finally decorated our house for Christmas on about the 12th. All of the local stores were sold out of fake trees, so it took us a while to get one. It looks good now, though, and it helps make things a little more festive.

-The Christmas puzzle we bought (the first we've put together since being married) made me realize 2 things. 1 - When Jenna sees that a puzzle may be difficult, she just tries to not get started, thus saving herself from getting annoyed. 2 - When I see that a puzzle is difficult, I HAVE TO beat it. In this instance, I did win. It took a little time, and we decided that of the 1000 pieces, Jenna placed about 15. Just don't know when we'll give puzzles another try. 

-We went to see a Christmas Carol concert. The churches here don't really play Christmas music, and since we don't have cars we don't get non-stop carols starting November 1st, so Jenna was pretty excited to do this. We saw the Mozart Choir and Orchestra. The orchestra was dressed in period wear - so white wigs, tights, and buckled shoes. That was probably the highlight, as we realized fairly soon that Christmas carols are very different here. They have a bunch of weird ones that we've never heard of, and then about half of the ones we knew were set to a different tune, which kinda ruined it. It was nice for the 3-4 songs that we knew and had the right music, and it did a pretty good job of making it feel Christmassy, but we probably won't be back next year.

Thanksgiving

So as you probably know, they don't exactly celebrate Thanksgiving over here. In fact, they really don't even understand it that well, and as it turns out it isn't the easiest holiday to explain. So, I had to work on Thursday and Friday, which was kinda weird. It was also probably the hardest week for us since all of our families were together and we were here by ourselves (we ate leftovers from Tuesday for dinner on Thursday).

We were able to get a pretty good lunch on Thanksgiving day. Jenna and Anne were able to meet me at Borough Market, which is close to my office. There is a little shop there that sells turkey sandwiches on a baguette. Even better, they serve turkey sandwiches with stuffing and cranberry sauce. It wasn't exactly the same as being at home, but it was a decent substitute considering our circumstances. We were also able to talk to both of our families so that helped.

We decided that we needed to have some semblance of a Thanksgiving dinner, so we offered to host at our flat and invited a few friends from the GEP program to come over on Saturday - 8 of us in total. This was great. We were in charge of the turkey and a few other minor sides, and then everyone else brought over all the other necessities.

We had a cheese and cracker tray for an appetizer (pretty popular over here). Then for dinner we had turkey, stuffing, corn, corn pudding, green beans, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, fruit salad, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Then for dessert we had pumpkin and apple pie (with homemade whipped cream), Hungarian teacake cookies, and pumpkin bread. The food was very comforting.

The interesting part was the seating plan. Of course, if you've seen the pictures of our flat you can guess that there isn't a lot of room. I measured it to just over 400 square feet. Also, we have only 4 chairs. As a solution, we had to move the kitchen table into the living room, and we brought in the patio table from outside. Luckily they were both about the same height, and we were able find a tablecloth that was big enough to cover both tables. We also brought in the patio chairs. Not exactly ideal but we cleaned them off pretty good and we thought it was better than having people on the couches trying to figure out how to deal with a loaded paper plate and cup and silverware and everything else.

Anyway, we had a pretty decent holiday. It wasn't the same as being at home with the family, but it was a very good alternative!

Busy Week

So, I guess I should start with Happy Thanksgiving!!! Since they don't celebrate over here, I had to work today and we'll be celebrating with some friends on Saturday (be sure to check back for all the info on that). Nothing spectacular this week, but in combination we did quite a bit.

Ice Skating

Last Saturday one of the other Global Exchange girls set up for us to meet and go ice skating. They decorated a big section of Hyde Park (one of the main - and biggest - parks in central London). There was a little German Christmas market, and the trees were decorated, and they had a little carnival with funhouse and ferris wheel (which we abstained from). They also had an ice skating rink, which we had a lot of fun with. It was as packed a rink as I've ever been on, so it was a little difficult to get around, but it was fun to get out there and I think it helped get us into the Christmas mood.

Swell Season

If you've seen the movie "Once" this section will mean a lot more to you...

Jenna found out last week that the band Swell Season would be in town on Monday, so she got us tickets. They are basically the band that acted and did all the songs for "Once" last year, which was the movie that won the Oscar for best song. Anyway, good movie if you haven't seen it. They are an Irish band that plays a different kind of music - hard to explain but I say a mix between love songs and rock with a little Irish flavor. My good Dallas friend Steve could probably sum up the sound better (and hopefully will with a comment). Again, worth checking out if you haven't heard.

Anyway, they played at the Royal Albert Hall, which was built by Queen Victoria in the late 1800s. It was awesome. It is what you think of when you think of an opera house from the 1800s - box seats, big red puffy chairs, ornate decorations everywhere, big dome. When Glen Hansard, the lead, came out - he did a solo song without any microphone or amp or anything, and it sounded great just using the acoustics of the building. Pretty amazing. Oh yeah, and our seats were amazing - on the floor 7 rows back. You can see the pictures, which turned out pretty good as well.

The whole concert was pretty good. The first guy did some classic Irish stuff - like playing instruments we'd never seen before and singing in Celtic (I think). The second band was a fully instrumental band playing all Irish tunes, so that was different from what we've really seen before but we liked it a lot. Then on came the main event, which was just really good.

Sick

People say that you get sick here more often - mostly from riding the Tube with hundreds of other people every day - and it hit us this week. I wasn't feeling great all last weekend - mostly just congested. Then on Tuesday it just hit me and I was feeling terrible. Just a cold, but annoying all the same. Probably a mix of lack of sleep and it being cold and the Tube. Anyway, I took off early on Tuesday and most of the day Wednesday. Then today, Jenna started getting it, and she hasn't been feeling too good all afternoon. I guess I probably passed it to her, but I'm trying not to take too much of the blame.

That's about it, but check back soon to hear about our experience with cooking Thanksgiving dinner, which is sure to be interesting.

Who says you can't do Paris in 3 days?

So this was our first big trip since we've been here, and it was a pretty action packed weekend, so there is a lot to cover. We uploaded pictures, but the one above is one of the fav's.

Friday, November 7th

Our train from London left at 6:40am, and since it takes forever to get anywhere here, especially at that hour, our day started at 4:00. We thought we'd sleep on the 3 hour train ride, but we were sitting across from a middle aged couple from New Zealand, and we ended up talking to them most of the way, which was fine because we got to see a lot of the English and French countryside. We got to Paris at about 11:00 and went straight to the hotel, which happened to have a window looking out onto the Eiffel Tower. Most of the buildings in Paris aren't too tall, so we think that a lot of the hotels can claim such a view, but ours was just a few blocks away.

We went first to Montmartre, which is the artsy part of town. We walked around a while and found a nice bistro to eat in, where I had a Croque Monsieur and Jenna had a crepe, and then we shared a dessert crepe. Yum! Also, they are pretty lenient about animals, and there was a German Shepherd mix that kept coming in and out of the place, and he ended up having some of our lunch as well! Montmartre is also the home of the largest church in Paris - the Sacre Coeur, so we went and took a look at that. It sits at the top of the largest hill in the city, so there are pretty good views when it isn't too foggy. Of course it was foggy on Friday, though, so we missed the views. We also walked down to the Moulin Rouge, but decided not to catch a show on account of the price and the nudity.

We next went to see Notre Dame, which was about as expected. Like all the other big churches we've seen here, it was packed with people and they seemed dependent on donations from tourists (light a candle for your loved ones - 2 Euro; be saved from damnation, 15 Euro). Still pretty cool to see, and to think that the foundations were built in the 1100s.

We planned to go to the Louvre that night (they have cheaper prices Friday nights, 1/2 price for me and free for Jenna since she's so young), but we had a little while before they had that price, so we walked there along the River Seine, which was cool. We also stopped and picked up our first baguettes for dinner.

The Louvre was awesome (other than the bathroom, which was the most disgusting one I've seen in Europe). They say you couldn't see it in 3 days, but we pretty much took care of the whole thing in 3 hours, so I don't know what everyone's talking about. In tribute to Jenna's Aunt Kathy, we had a "Top Ten Paris" book to see all the best stuff. Seriously, though, the enormity of the place is indescribable - you just have to see it. We saw all of the major things - Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, etc. I was unimpressed by Mona Lisa. There are about 100 other things in there that we liked a lot more. I think it is just because everyone says it is good that everyone assumes that it is - like if you don't like it you are art retarded, so everyone oohs and aahs even though it isn't that great. Anyway, I'll be the first to break that cycle. There are tons of little off-shoots all over the museum, and it would be easy to get lost (we did at least 5 times). Well worth it, but by 9pm we were beat from our long day and just headed back to the hotel (stopping for some night shots of the Eiffel Tower).

Saturday, November 8th

We got up early to beat the crowds up the Eiffel Tower. You've probably seen it before in photos. It was pretty cool to see the whole city from up there, and Jenna just loves it in general, so it was very nice.

After the tower we walked up the Champs-Elysees, which is possibly the most famous road in the world. It has a lot of great shopping and great restaurants, similar to Michigan Ave in Chicago or 5th Avenue. Its special for the fact that it has the Arc de Triomophe at the end, and it is the home to La Duree, our new favorite restaurant. Okay, restaurant is a loose term since all we had there was dessert (and lots of it!). We each ordered a dessert - one creme puff and a chocolate tart - and then we had hot chocolate. All was excellent. The hot chocolate was so good that we got the recipe from them, and here it is for you:

1. Melt a chocolate bar.
2. Drink.

YUMMY!!

After the Arc de Triomphe we went to the Pantheon. Not too much to say there. Check out the pics. We had an extra hour and it was in the book, so we checked it out.

Saturday night we went to see the Centre Georges-Pompidou, which is a museum/movie theatre/exhibition hall that is pretty famous for being "built inside out." All of the piping, elevators, main staircase, etc are on the outside of the building. We didn't pay to do any of the stuff in there, but it was cool to see in person, since we'd seen it in high school french class when it was newish. Finally we went to dinner at a nice-ish restaurant near our hotel. The food was pretty good, but only worth mentioning because we had escargot (snails). It was doused in butter and some kind of herbs, so that was mostly what it tasted like. Jenna compared the consistency to a mushroom, although it was probably slightly more spongy than that. If you go, you should definitely try them. Before heading to bed, we stopped back by the Eiffel Tower again. One funny thing is that at night they light it up - but with blue colored lights (at least when we were there). I think we posted one picture of it in color, cause it just looks weird to see the blue Eiffel Tower.

Sunday, November 9th

On Sunday we tried to make up for the lack of sleep and didn't get up until about 10:00. We went to the Musee d'Orsay, which is a converted train station and the place where they hold all the impressionist paintings, so that was cool to see as well. We had lunch at the cafe in the museum, which was behind one of the large clocks, and we ate salads and a selection of French cheeses with bread. Again, yum!

Across from the museum was a large park (Jardin des Tulieries), so we went there. It was nice but due to it being Fall, probably not nearly what it would be like in the Summer. Next to the park was a shopping area called the Place de la Madeleine, where they have several small boutique clothing and food stores. We were hoping to go over there and get a few souvenirs, but as it turns out, the city pretty much closes on Sundays (and the whole month of August, apparently), so nothing was open. Nothing that is other than...you guessed it...La Duree!!! We bought a few macaroons (which they are famous for) and another chocolate dessert (that is still in the fridge, actually - hmmmmm).

Since none of the shops were open, we had a little extra time, so we went back to the Eiffel Tower, from across the river this time. We had about an hour before needing to leave for the train, so we sat and enjoyed one last crepe, then made one last boulangerie stop for bread and dinner (Quiche!!), and a chocolate eclair for good measure, before heading back to the train station for London.

Overall, a great first travel experience. We fell in love with Paris and will certainly be back one day!!